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File this under: So Many Books, So Little Time! Updated 5/7/2012: They've started filming this one and I'm pretty happy about the fact that Nicole Kidman has joined the production as Lomax wife. She replaces Rachel Weisz who had some sort of time confliction. Lomax is played by Colin Firth who looks amazing in this shot, doesn't he? According to The Playlist, in addition to Jeremy Irvine who plays the young Eric Lomax, the wonderful Stellan Starsgaard - he played the bad guy in The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo is also onboard as a friend. who helps Lomax confront his wartime tormentor played by Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai).
Jeremy Irvine, who we'll be seeing soon in Steven Spielberg's War Horse, has just been cast to co-star alongside Colin Firth in The Railway Man. Jonathan Teplitzsky is directing the drama. Based on the memoir by Eric Lomax, the story is about his life during and after World War II working on Japan's Death Railway. Japan forced prisoners of war to work on the railway, which connects Bangkok to what is now Yangon, Myanmar.
Lomax was a British officer during the war, and was tortured by the Japanese for being a spy. Later in life, Lomax sought to track down one of his torturers.
The script was co-written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and Andy Paterson, who is also producing via his Archer Street Productions with Chris Brown of Pictures in Paradise and Bill Curbishley.
Lionsgate has the U.K. rights and is handling international sales. Liongate U.K.'s Zygi Kamasa will executive produce.
Jeremy Irvine is clearly an up and comer! He's currently in production on director Mike Newell's Great Expectations, in which he will star as Pip opposite Ralph Fiennes and Helen Bonham Carter. He has completed Now is Good, opposite Dakota Fanning, Paddy Considine and Olivia Williams. In Dreamworks' War Horse, which will be released in December, Irvine plays Albert, whose beloved horse is sold to the cavalry during World War I. Though too young to enlist, Albert heads to the battlefields to save his equine friend. The film is based on the Tony Award-winning play.
In The Railway Man, Irvine will play a young Colin Firth. I don't know Irvine's work yet, but on a purely physical level it looks like they got the casting right. Score one for Hollywood!